Next day, Queen Jane was forced by the Privy Council to resign her crown, and that same night, accompanied by Cuthbert and Cicely, she escaped by a secret passage from the Tower, and, taking a boat, made her way to Sion House.  Here, the following day, she and her husband were arrested, and learnt the news that the Duke of Northumberland was in captivity, and that Queen Mary had ascended the throne.  Once more Lady Jane was led back to the Tower, and as she entered by the Traitors’ Gate she saw Renard standing hard by, with a smile of bitter mockery in his face.

“So,” he said, “Epiphany is over.  The Twelfth Day Queen has played her part.”

III.—­The Price of Pardon

Simon Renard’s influence was now for the time supreme.  At his instigation the Duke of Northumberland was tricked into a confession of the Roman Catholic faith on the scaffold, and then executed.  Ambitious that Mary should marry Philip of Spain, he contrived by intrigue to kill her affection for Courtenay, the young Earl of Devon, and succeeded so successfully that Courtenay was placed under arrest, and the Princess Elizabeth, with whom the earl had fallen in love, became the victim of her sister’s jealousy.  Cuthbert, though not confined in a cell, was kept prisoner in the Tower, and occupied quarters in the pantler’s house.  Cicely had disappeared, and nothing had been heard of her since the arrest of Lady Jane Grey at Sion House.

Consumed with anxiety for the safety of the girl he loved, the esquire began to suspect that she had been kidnapped by Nightgall.  He determined to find her at all cost, and getting Xit to steal the gaoler’s keys, he once more made his way to the subterranean dungeons.

Cell after cell he searched, but nowhere could he find a trace of his beloved Cicely.  All that he discovered was the dead body of Alexia.  He made haste to return to his quarters, and had almost reached them when Nightgall appeared, and at once placed him under arrest for stealing his keys.

His enemy was now at his mercy, and Nightgall, after burying the body of Alexia, sought out Cicely, whom be had kept for several weeks a close prisoner in the Salt Tower.  He told her that he was about to remove her to another prison in the Tower leading to the Iron Gate.

“I will never go thither of my own accord,” replied Cicely, shrinking terrified from him.  “Release me, villain; I will die sooner than become your bride.”

“We shall see that,” growled the gaoler, seizing hold of her.  “You shall never be set free unless you consent to be mine.”

He carried her, shrieking and struggling in his arms, out of the room, and dragged her by main force down the secret staircase.  She continued her screams, until her head, striking against the stones, she was stunned by the blow and became insensible.  Nightgall raised her, and carried her quickly to the dark cell he had already prepared.  Here she would have languished for months without seeing anybody save Nightgall, except for a curious chain of circumstances.